Crackers

As you know, we're eating a lot healthier in our house these days, but we certainly want our food to be super tasty. One of the things I was shocked to find out about is that almost every cracker on the market these days has high fructose corn syrup in it. Ritz, Keebler Club House, Saltines...shall I go on? Our boys love making little peanut butter crackers for their lunches with Ritz and PB. We also love having little ham and cheese crackers, apple and cheese crackers, etc. This weekend, I wanted to take a crack (he he) at making my own crackers. I wrote down about six different recipes I want to try. This is the first one and if they all turn out this great, I may never have to buy another box of crackers again (cost savings to boot).

These are a wonderful, savory cracker, and the aroma it filled the house with is scrumptious. The cracker itself is light, airy, super savory and quite tasty. Yum. If you're looking to try out some cracker recipes, try this one for sure. I'll post the others as I try them out. This is from Every Day with Rachel Ray, though I made one alteration to her original recipe. I can see this is a recipe that will allow for a lot of different flavor combinations. Can't wait to try.

Parmesan Icebox Crackers
Ingredients:
1 cup flour
3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp ground sage
4 tbs butter, chilled and cut into cubes
1 cup shredded Parmesan (the fresh stuff, please)
1/4 cup heavy cream

1. Using a food processor, pulse the flour, salt, sage and thyme until combined. Pulse in the butter until just incorporated. Pulse in the cheese and with the machine running, add the cream and process until the dough forms a ball, about 10 seconds.

2. Turn out the dough onto a 12-inch-long sheet of plastic wrap and shape into a 4-inch long roll. (I shaped mine into about an 8-inch long roll.) Roll up and twist both plastic wrap ends to enclose. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours or up to 3 days.



The cheese dough before it heads into the fridge for a chill.

3. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Slice the cheese log into 1/4-inch-thick slices (mine are a little thinner, on purpose). Place 2 inches apart on a parchment (or Silpat) lined baking sheet. Bake until golden brown, 20-25 minutes. (Mine took less time because they were thinner and smaller, about 15 minutes total...keep an eye on these.) Transfer to a rack to cool.